Conference Program

Recent studies suggest that the relationship between higher education and normative visions of ‘the good life’ has become increasingly problematic (Brooks et al., 2025), with some arguing that the promise of social mobility through university is nothing more than a “fantasy rhetoric” (Bathmaker et al., 2016, p. ix). In today’s volatile labour markets, the symbolic and material value of higher education is eroding, raising questions about students’ declining belief in the university ‘game’ – especially for those seeking upward mobility through education.

This talk will interrogate the complexity of first-in-family (FiF) students’ investment and persistence in contemporary higher education. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of illusio (Bourdieu, 1990), we will use an empirical case - the story of Zoe who is an undergraduate student in Australia - to show that ‘staying in the game’ of university education is a multi-layered process shaped by moments of rupture, recalibration and reinvestment, as well as shifts in the meaning ascribed to higher education. By illuminating the fragility and volatility of first-in-family students’ journeys through higher education, we will explore how they experience the promise of meritocracy and the implications of struggles within their everyday lives. We will also show how their experienced during studies reshape their expectation for the future.